Conducting wall Hall thrusters

Abstract

A unique configuration of the magnetic field near the wall of Hall thrusters, called Magnetic Shielding, has recently demonstrated the ability to significantly reduce the erosion of the boron nitride (BN) walls and extend the life of Hall thrusters by orders of magnitude. The ability of magnetic shielding to minimize interactions between the plasma and the discharge chamber walls has for the first time enabled the replacement of insulating walls with conducting materials without loss in thruster performance. The boron nitride rings in the 6 kW H6 Hall thruster were replaced with graphite that self-biased to near the anode potential. The thruster efficiency remained over 60% (within two percent of the baseline BN configuration) with a small decrease in thrust and increase in Isp typical of magnetically shielded Hall thrusters. The graphite wall temperatures decreased significantly compared to both shielded and unshielded BN configurations, leading to the potential for higher power operation. Eliminating ceramic walls makes it simpler and less expensive to fabricate a thruster to survive launch loads, and the graphite discharge chamber radiates more efficiently which increases the power capability of the thruster compared to conventional Hall thruster designs.